Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning: A Memoir (The Autobiographical Trilogy Book 2) 36 people found this helpful 5.0 out of 5 starsSo Much He Loved Wandering ByGussie Fink-Nottleon January 1, 2003 "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" [1], author Laurie Lee recounted his first sojourn away from home. At age 19, our narrator-biographer, walked out of his village at Stroud, Gloucestershire, and headed toward London. As Lee himself recalled, he was 'still soft at the edges' when he said farewell to his mother (a poignant scene in the opening chapter). All he had with him that Sunday morning in June 1934 was 'a small rolled-up tent, a violin in a blanket, a change of clothes, a tin of treacle biscuits, and some cheese.' After nearly a year of living and working in London as a cement laborer, Lee decided it was time to move on. He bought a one-way ticket and sailed to Spain. He settled for Spain because he had had an introduction to Spanish.

All he could speak then, Lee admitted, was only one Spanish phrase: 'Will you please give me a glass of water?' In July 1935, Laurie Lee landed in northwestern Spain. For many months he roamed the exotic and history-filled landscape, living off his music and the kindness of the people he came to love. From Vigo, he wandered southward through the New Castile region (Segovia, Madrid, Toledo). By December, he came to the coastal region of Andalusia (Cordova, Seville, Granada). There, Lee holed up at a Castillo hotel until the outbreak of the civil war in July 1936. This author's second autobiographical sketch could have been subtitled "From Spain With Love." His inimitable poetic description of the Spanish landscape and its inhabitants is sensual as it is lyrical. The warmth and beauty of this passage [no pun], for example, undulates this reviewer's reveries, not of memories but of what has never been: 'When twilight came I slept where I was, on the shore or some rock-strewn headland, and woke to the copper glow of the rising sun coming slowly across the sea.

Mornings were pure resurrection, which I could watch sitting up, still wrapped like a corpse in my blanket, seeing the blood-warm light soak back into the Sierras, slowing re-animating their ash-grey cheeks, and feeling the cold of the ground drain away beneath me as the sunrise reached my body.' Lee's "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" and its third autobiograhy "A Moment In War" have had a farther reach than any of his other celebrated works. These writings have been adapted to music to which Charles Baudelaire could only spoke of metaphorically. In June of 2002, the Allegri String Quartet in The Salisbury Festival (UK) premiered "A Walk Into War." A musical piece which the quartet had commissioned based on the two latter biographies. The author once wrote that autobiography is 'a celebration of life and an attempt to hoard its sensations...trophies snatched from the dark... to praise the life I'd had and so preserve it, and to live again both the good and the bad'. By all measures he had not done badly.

He was and is the one modern author whose memoirs have transcended into the realms of music and visual arts ('Cider With Rosie', a 1998 film by John Mortimer). 1] Laurie Lee's autobiographical trilogy - Book 1:"Cider with Rosie" (1959); Book 2:"As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" (1969); and Book 3: "A Moment of War" (1991). 20 people found this helpful 3.0 out of 5 starsNo connection, just language ByChapmanon December 10, 2011 I had heard of Laurie Lee before, but I don't believe that I had ever read anything of his. I would imagine that reading some of his work is essential to say one has lived in Gloucestershire, right? I am glad that I read this book, as the descriptions were some of the most vivid that I have seen - one might say poetic, actually! I did read a few bios of Lee, as I was curious to know how this experience fit into his life.

I found that he wrote "Walked out" about 30 years after the events occurred, though they do say that he kept notes of his experiences. I wondered if Lee had written this book close after the events depicted because he describes his mother in the first pages as if she is an old crone. Now, I know that young people tend to view anyone over thirty as hopelessly old, but his mum was only 55 when he left, and I question that description. It does make me wonder if perhaps this book was written more with the eyes and heart of a fifty year old than of a under 30 chap. The descriptions of places and people were second to none. I could envision what Lee saw and heard. He wasn't as successful at conveying his emotions, though. Perhaps he doesn't remember what he felt, and why he did what he did, and that's fair enough. I just find it hard to believe that he would go off to Spain for no particular reason, and then wander about with no particular goal. In fact, he gives himself sunstroke twice by pushing on toward no particular goal. I know that the Y chromosome is a dangerous thing, but this seems excessively stupid.

If I had a bit more insight into his character perhaps it would make some sense. Lee seems to intentionally keep his emotions away from the reader. Perhaps that is because of the era or his style of writing, but the result was that I thought he was a cold fish. I thought there was going to be an emotional revelation when he said (p 121): "Crossing the Sierra...was one of those sudden jerky advances in life which, once made, close the past forever. ...not till I'd passed it did I feel really involved in Spain." And then nothing, no evidence of emotional involvement until he sympathises with the Republicans around page 215. I didn't care for Lee's view of women. They were either mothers to take care of him or hot young things to ogle or bed. Again, perhaps that was the time. The other annoyance was the fact that he changed the names of places. For instance, why not call Almunecar by its proper name instead of calling it Castillo? Lee rarely expressed gratitude for all the many kindnesses that he was shown. He seems to take it for granted that people are going to save him from sunstroke, and extend hospitality to him.

Did anyone else think that the people seemed to be rather disgusting looking by and large? Maybe they were, or maybe he made more notes about the peculiarities of appearance, so thirty years on they figure rather larger than they might. My overall impression of the book was a series of elegantly drawn pictures of what Lee was doing and seeing. I didn't feel that I understood his motivations, or got an insight into the feelings of the characters. His return to Spain was just the last incomprehensible act - he describes it as an hallucination of honour brought on by falling in love. Huh? What do you mean by that? What did he actually feel? As a result, the book didn't involve me deeply. I couldn't care about the characters because Lee didn't flesh them - including himself - out. All the same, it was an interesting read. Perhaps the poems would touch me more. Read Free Book A Moment Of War ∸∶≗ Laurie Lee ↺ Free eBook Download fantasy.bookrix.website A Moment Of War Reviews Huw Evans Oct 27, 2011 I really resented having to wait nearly thirty years to read this book.

I read Cider with Rosie and As I Walked Out One...and the simplicity of the writing style and the small details made it absolutely captivating reading. Also, the idea of just walking away from everything stirred my wanderlust, even though I did little about it for many years. This book compares favourably with anything written by Hemingway and Orwell on the same subject and exposes the individual's fragility in the face of p I really resented having to wait nearly thirty years to read this book. I read Cider with Rosie and As I Walked Out One...and the simplicity of the writing style and the small details made it absolutely captivating reading. Also, the idea of just walking away from everything stirred my wanderlust, even though I did little about it for many years. This book compares favourably with anything written by Hemingway and Orwell on the same subject and exposes the individual's fragility in the face of political ambition. Begona Fernandez Oct 25, 2011 Unfortunately this memoir left me rather cold. I am obsessed with the Spanish Civil War so this book was a obvious choice.

But with not enough personal details that make you care for any of the characters, the detached quality of the narration and when spaniards appear at all you feel Laurie is dealing with a different race he doesn't particularly like, to the point that you start to wonder what on earth he is doing in Spain in the first place. He starts the book tired and ends it exhausted and t Unfortunately this memoir left me rather cold. I am obsessed with the Spanish Civil War so this book was a obvious choice. But with not enough personal details that make you care for any of the characters, the detached quality of the narration and when spaniards appear at all you feel Laurie is dealing with a different race he doesn't particularly like, to the point that you start to wonder what on earth he is doing in Spain in the first place. He starts the book tired and ends it exhausted and this feeling was passed onto me. In fact I was so exhausted I had to master all my patriotism in the cause of reading to end this book at all.

This is a book written by an old man that has lost all spark of hope in humanity or idealism, can remember that at one time he used to have them but can't invoque their ghost Nigeyb Jun 23, 2012 Laurie Lee did an amazing thing. One midsummer morning he walked out of his childhood home in the Cotswolds (described in entertaining detail in the fabulous ‘Cider With Rosie’) and walked to Spain via London (described in ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’). The final part of the trilogy - ‘A Moment Of War’ – covers Laurie’s return to Spain during the Spanish Civil War. The introduction is brilliant. Laurie schleps across the Pyrenees to volunteer only to be arrested as a spy. I won’t say Laurie Lee did an amazing thing. One midsummer morning he walked out of his childhood home in the Cotswolds (described in entertaining detail in the fabulous ‘Cider With Rosie’) and walked to Spain via London (described in ‘As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning’). The final part of the trilogy - ‘A Moment Of War’ – covers Laurie’s return to Spain during the Spanish Civil War.

The introduction is brilliant. Laurie schleps across the Pyrenees to volunteer only to be arrested as a spy. I won’t say anymore, suffice to say it is gripping stuff. If you have the time and the inclination then read all three books. By the time you get to ‘A Moment Of War’ you’ll adore Laurie’s fabulous powers of description and understated bravery. Rodrigo Paris Feb 03, 2013 I am repeating myself, since what I wrote earlier disappeared all of a sudden. I had heard that sometimes people adorned their own biography, claiming participation in historical events in which they had no pat at all. This 'autobiographical' memoir of the war is a good example of that sort of deception. I would argue that Mr. Lee had absolutely no participation in the Spanish Civil War. The inconsistencies and contradictions are all too obvious. Let's look at the narrative: In page 1 of my copy I am repeating myself, since what I wrote earlier disappeared all of a sudden. I had heard that sometimes people adorned their own biography, claiming participation in historical events in which they had no pat at all. This 'autobiographical' memoir of the war is a good example of that sort of deception.

I would argue that Mr. Lee had absolutely no participation in the Spanish Civil War. The inconsistencies and contradictions are all too obvious. Let's look at the narrative: In page 1 of my copy (The New Press, New York, 1991) Mr. Lee claims he crossed the Pyrenees into Spain in December 1937. Let's assume he did it on December 1st., in order to give him more time to accomplish everything he claims he did. On the second night, he's helped to find his way by a mysterious shepherd, who reappears a couple of times later (the Guardian Angel?). When he knocks at the door of the hut he has reached, he's met with some suspicion, apparently insofar as he's carrying a violin and books (incidentally, he never, never, plays the violin during the time he spends in Spain, nor does he ever reads any of the books he was carrying around). The following day (third) he is delivered to the authorities, and formally charged with being a spy, since it is hardly believable that any body could cross the mountains on foot and without a guide.

He is handcuffed and thrown in a dungeons, where he spends two full dadys (4th and 5th days of the journey). On the third day (6th of the journey) a certain Capt. Perez comes to his cell, and, after refusing to believe the version of young Laurie Lee, hands him over to four guards, the same guards who had met him the previous day. They throw him into a hole in the ground and padlock the lid. He cannot tell how long he's been there (a couple of days or a couple of hours)when they come back with another prisoners, who is also thrown in. They stay there for about a week, let's say six days, 7h, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th day of the journey). After those six days, the other guy is pulled out and shot. A few days later (let's say two, that is to say, the 13th and 14h day of the journey) he's pulled out of the hole.

He thinks he's going o get shot, but, instead, he's delivered to the International Brigades' Headquarters in Figueras, where he's offered prophylactics by the officer who takes his passport. Note that on page 25, he talks about his 'two weeks underground', so, I am not too far off. In the Castle at Figueras he meets a bunch of young volunteers like himself; they go into town, smoke, drink, and Laurie gets laid. The skin of the girl was mottled by small purple bruises. She keep calling him 'Frenchman' and he keeps correcting her. So end the first days in Figueras, roughly the 15th day of the journey. The following day (the 16th) they, the young volunteers, were paraded. The following day, the 17th, he gets a message from the girl, asking him to come visit her. When he gets there, she's gone after allegedly killing her 'father'. "Ten days after my arrival at Figueras Castle...", (that is to say, roughly the 24th day of the journey) the whole bunch are pushed into a train, on their way to Albacete.

The train took 24 hours to get to Valencia, that is to say, they'd arrived there on the 25th day of the journey.But the train doesn't leave until the following day, that is to say, the 26th day of the journey, after experiencing a bombarment by the German and Italian airplanes.That day, they arrive at Albacete, the training ground for the International Brigades. That ends the 26th day. Now, in Albacete, Laurie is accused of being an agent of the Franco rebels, interrogated by Sam, an American volunteer, told he's probably going to get shot, and thrown in a cell. He's told to write farewell letters, which he does, and, that night, they bring a gay to sleep with hm. Now we are into the 27th day. About 4pm he's taken out of the cell. The mysterious shepherd appears, who is now a Frenchman, who, miraculously, saves him. So far, we are vey close to the end of December, but, according to Laurie, now starts the offensive against Teruel, something that had started on December 15th!

Another weird fact is that, after spending quite a few days at Albacete, he never mention André Marty, the much-feared psychotic French Communist who was in charge of the International Brigades. And he keeps talking about the Azaña Largo Caballero as though it were one person. And he tell us that Madrid is a mile-high, when, in fact, the altitude of Madrid is only about a third of that. Or perhaps he was thinking of Denver... I strongly suspect that Mr. Lee was never in Spain during the Civil War, and that, writing half a century later, he thought nobody was going to read his little book carefully enough to detect the inconsistencies and half-truths. The book does not deserve even one star, unless we classify as a word of fiction, not even a historical novel. Sarah Foster Jan 05, 2013 I fell in love with Laurie Lee's writing a few years ago, reading 'Cider with Rosie'. I begun reading Lee because he was from a village close to where I live, in Gloucestershire.

Cider with Rosie, did not disappoint my want for nostalgia for my beloved Stroud(ish), however I stopped here for a while before reading 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning', which I knew would have very little to say about the rolling hills of Slad. However I started seeing a Spanish guy, and so, with a little more I fell in love with Laurie Lee's writing a few years ago, reading 'Cider with Rosie'. I begun reading Lee because he was from a village close to where I live, in Gloucestershire. Cider with Rosie, did not disappoint my want for nostalgia for my beloved Stroud(ish), however I stopped here for a while before reading 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning', which I knew would have very little to say about the rolling hills of Slad. However I started seeing a Spanish guy, and so, with a little more relevance to my life again, the literary journey continued. I read 'A moment of War' in a little over a week and for the most part enjoyed it.

It is not the same as the other two books, it evokes, in Lee's rich descriptive, poetic prose the atmosphere of war, and particularly of a country at war with itself. It is in stark contrast to 'As I walked out', it could barely be recognised as the same country, the searing heat, swapped for the bitter searing cold, the jovial, welcoming, slightly bizarre characters turned to hostile, terrified and sick. The inns are exchanged for barracks, his violin for a gun. The book is not an action packed war adventure, far from it. It is a seemingly honest account of a winter spent in Spain in the grips of war. And I am glad of it. Lee's words painting a vivid picture of the realities of this war, which my British curriculum education all but forgot, and all through the eyes of a British writer, who I understand (and not critically) to be a mere tourist of war, rather than any kind of hero. The book is highly eroticised in places. Once could argue that much of Lee's writing is rich in eroticism, however in this book I must have noticed it more.

Perhaps only appearing more shocking on a backdrop of bullets and bombs than breezey Gloucestershire meadows and wine-soaked Spanish bars. Overall I enjoyed this book very much, and the trilogy marks one of my favourite literary adventures. As I walked out, perhaps being my favoured of the three (and hence the 4 x stars for this particular book), but I still strongly recommend it, it is a brilliant, if dark book. Sylvester Apr 28, 2013 I only gave this 2* out of respect for Lee's talent as a poet and writer. I would otherwise have given it only 1*. This is one of those times when I am reviewing based entirely on my response to the subject matter - and has nothing to do with the quality of the writing. I hated the meaninglessness so much, not to mention the little situation with the 13 year old boy they threw into his cell to "warm" him (????) the boy's words, "You can hurt me." made me ill, and I had a hard time reading the re I only gave this 2* out of respect for Lee's talent as a poet and writer. I would otherwise have given it only 1*.

This is one of those times when I am reviewing based entirely on my response to the subject matter - and has nothing to do with the quality of the writing. I hated the meaninglessness so much, not to mention the little situation with the 13 year old boy they threw into his cell to "warm" him (????) the boy's words, "You can hurt me." made me ill, and I had a hard time reading the rest of the book. Not for me. A chasm lies between this and "Cider For Rosie", let me tell you! Louise Feb 26, 2014 A Moment of War is the third and final book in Laurie Lee’s autobiographical account of his childhood and youth. I read the second, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning a couple of months ago but, as with this one, had read bits of it before while studying the Spanish Civil War and the role of foreign volunteers.

As I Walked Out… finishes with Lee’s decision to return to Spain now that the Civil War was underway, to fight for the Republican cause, and making a difficult journey alone and on foot A Moment of War is the third and final book in Laurie Lee’s autobiographical account of his childhood and youth. I read the second, As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning a couple of months ago but, as with this one, had read bits of it before while studying the Spanish Civil War and the role of foreign volunteers. As I Walked Out… finishes with Lee’s decision to return to Spain now that the Civil War was underway, to fight for the Republican cause, and making a difficult journey alone and on foot over the Pyrenees. This is, then, where A Moment of War starts as he is briefly taken in by a family and then promptly arrested as a spy. It wasn’t the done thing, to simply turn up on your own, most had their passage secured by the Communist Party, for example, and many people assumed that this young, blonde foreigner was German. He is eventually released and taken to be with other International Brigaders in Figueras. After a period of inactivity, he is arrested again.

On inspection of his passport, it is revealed that he spent time in the South and in Morocco, the birthplace of Franco’s coup attempt at the time the plotting was taking place. Once again, he is released and returned to do, well, not much really. The bulk of the book is made up of Lee and his fellow volunteers sitting around, underfed and cold in the bitter winter, waiting for something to happen. What this account really makes clear is how boring war is for so much of the time, when you are fighting a losing a battle and stuck behind the lines. It also highlights perfectly some of the reasons why the Republic eventually succumbed to Franco’s Nationalists. They were poorly resourced, and very quickly sapped of morale when faced with German bombing raids. The Republican side was an uncomfortable mix of Spanish socialists, anarchists, and liberals along with apolitical people who just wanted to defend their homes and families, alongside well-meaning but ultimately naive foreign intellectuals and labourers. It is an understatement to say that they just didn’t really get along all the time that well. See George Orwell’s Homage to Catalonia for the proof of this playing out in the bloody Barcelona May Days.

As I said when reading As I Walked Out… this book benefits greatly from hindsight. It was not written/ published until 1991, and thus is full of comments about how the Spanish Civil War can be seen as the opening shots of the Second World War and is clearly written with the Republic’s forthcoming defeat in mind. But unlike the previous volume, it is not as poetic and lyrical, taking a colder eye on the unfolding tragedy. Caroline Feb 25, 2014 Very good, very different from Homage to Catalonia. Lee is, if we believe this, oblivious to politics and strategy. He simply exists. The bleakness and almost absolute zero cold are all one senses. Lee experiences five minutes of battle in the entire book; the rest is the curious sequence of sneaking into Spain, being taken for a spy, twice, narrowly missing being executed, twice, and completely random, disorganized movement toward the front. Then equally bolloxed up retreat. And yet there is an e Very good, very different from Homage to Catalonia. Lee is, if we believe this, oblivious to politics and strategy. He simply exists. The bleakness and almost absolute zero cold are all one senses.

Lee experiences five minutes of battle in the entire book; the rest is the curious sequence of sneaking into Spain, being taken for a spy, twice, narrowly missing being executed, twice, and completely random, disorganized movement toward the front. Then equally bolloxed up retreat. And yet there is an evanescent, very knowing sensibility at work as well, especially exposed in the murky, fluid issue of sexuality. A valuable addition to my accumulation of 20th century Spanish memoirs. Kevin Varney Nov 22, 2015 Blimey, it looks like Laurie Lee was lucky to have survived to write Cider with Rosie and his other books. He had balls of brass. I read some interesting things on the internet about him and the Spanish Civil War. There were some people who think this story was not true. However, there is evidence that he took part in the war, but that he suffered from epilepsy, so was never sent to the front. Laurie had more to worry from his own side it would seem. He had to write from memory decades later bec Blimey, it looks like Laurie Lee was lucky to have survived to write Cider with Rosie and his other books.

He had balls of brass. I read some interesting things on the internet about him and the Spanish Civil War. There were some people who think this story was not true. However, there is evidence that he took part in the war, but that he suffered from epilepsy, so was never sent to the front. Laurie had more to worry from his own side it would seem. He had to write from memory decades later because his diaries were stolen. My favourite quote is: 'You know Lorenzo,' said Sam, looking out of the window, 'I've often wondered about you. Just what your game is. What you've been doing here. They say you don't know which side to get on a bus.' Jan Hawke Mar 28, 2016 This sombre book was starkly different to the heat, colour and gaiety described in 'As I walked out one Midsummer Morning'. Spain in the middle of the Spanish Civil War was 'stretched dead on a slab'. However despite its gloominess there are characteristic flashes of humour and some beautiful lyrical passages.

Particularly memorable is the description of the air-raid on Valencia and the depiction of a country at war with itself 'an infection so deep it seemed to rot the earth, drain it of colour This sombre book was starkly different to the heat, colour and gaiety described in 'As I walked out one Midsummer Morning'. Spain in the middle of the Spanish Civil War was 'stretched dead on a slab'. However despite its gloominess there are characteristic flashes of humour and some beautiful lyrical passages. Particularly memorable is the description of the air-raid on Valencia and the depiction of a country at war with itself 'an infection so deep it seemed to rot the earth, drain it of colour, life and sound.' Laurie Lee describes not only the inhumanity of war and its casual murders but also the monotony and the muddles so accurately it seems inconceivable that people should doubt the veracity of this book. Readers Also Enjoyed As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning: Lee Laurie: 9781567923926: Books - Amazon.ca By C. Ebeling on Jan.

2 2002 Format: Paperback It's a shame that this fine book is not in print. Those going after used editions--and you should--are encouraged to look for the 1985 reprint stunningly illustrated with classic paintings of Spanish life. But back to why you want to read this: in 1934, a young, naive Englishman who had never been out of his rural neighborhood packed up his violin and went walking, first to London, a hundred miles east and then via boat to Spain where he walked from Vigo in the north down to the southern coast. I'm having trouble shelving the book: is it a straight memoir? Certainly it is very much about the writer's encounter with the world at a historically significant time and about his own growth process. Or is it a travelogue? It is a very accurate account of the unique Spanish culture and countryside. Although written more than 30 years after the actual experience, Lee's account conveys a fresh sense of wonder and discovery and resists overlaying too much foreshadowing and hindsight. His style is lyrical, vivid as the blue Spanish sky and honest. He is refreshingly free of nationalism and prejudice. 2 people found this helpful.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again. By MR G. Rodgers on Dec 9 2002 Format: Paperback "As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning" is the story of Laurie Lee's travels (mostly on foot) from rural West Country England to London, and then through Spain in 1935-36. It's a joy to read (as was "Cider With Rosie"), and Lee recalls a world now lost due to the rise of the motor car and the arrival of the "global village": for example, I doubt that the arrival of a foreigner in a Spanish village would now be quite the event it was in 1935. The majority of the book is devoted to Spain, and indeed this for me was the best part. It's a Spain in which Lee sees the faded glory of the past, but at the same time a backwardness reminiscent of descriptions of the Third World countries of today. Lee was no romantic - he devotes space to descriptions of the grinding poverty and social tensions he saw. I puzzled over some parts of the book, however.

Lee does not describe how he managed to pick up a working knowledge of Spanish. I suppose that youth helped (he was 20), and necessity can be the mother of education. If the dialogue was being reconstructed at some distance in time from the actual events, it might be best to consider that it was Lee's recollection of what might have been said rather than a truly accurate account. Also, I was disappointed that while Lee followed the course of the Guadalquivir to Seville, he fails to mention the city of Cordoba. Did he visit it, or give it a miss? In all though, a very enjoyable read. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback... Thank you for your feedback. Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again. 5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking Prose May 27 2013 By PadmaPriya - Published on Amazon.com Format: Paperback Verified Purchase This has got to be one of the most evocative memoirs ever written; it certainly tops all the other road-trip/travelers tales I've read.

As befits an award winning poet, Lee's prose has a concise, 3-D image making eloquence that drops the reader into the center of a scene, in the breathing presence of a character, or into the tactile truth of a landscape. In the mid-1930s, the nineteen year-old Lee sets out on foot from his Gloucestershire home, with a tin of biscuits and a violin, on his way to London via a hundred mile detour to coast "as I'd never yet seen the sea." Two years later he is fortuitously "rescued" off the coast of southern Spain by the Royal Navy trawling the Spanish beaches for stray Brits marooned between the warring factions of the Spanish Civil War. Lee's narrative of what happens in between these events provides priceless images of life as experienced by a penniless wanderer in depression-era Britain and pre-modern Spain. Few histories of an era or place can conjure its emotional and physical resonance quite so well as a living memory. In his description of life on the road to London, Lee is able to capture the essence of the failure of capitalism during the Thirties (our current failure being but an echo of it's father).

Spoiler Alert...quotations from the book: Lee finds himself among the "host of unemployed who wandered aimlessly about England at that time...They were like a broken army walking away from war, cheeks sunken, eyes dead with fatigue. Some carried bags of tools or broken cardboard suitcases; some wore the ghosts of city suits...walking up and down the country in a maze of jobless refusals.." Among them are professional tramps, like Alf, who taught him the ways of the road. "He wore a deerstalker hat, so sodden and shredded it looked like a helping of breakfast food...a tramp to his bones, always wrapping and unwrapping himself, and picking over his bits and pieces...never passing a bit of grass that looked good for a shakedown nor a cottage that seemed ripe for charity." Soon after he parts from Alf on the outskirts of Ascot, the other half of society rolls into view: "I wasn't surprised when one of the Daimlers pulled up and an arm beckoned me from the window..."Want a pheasant my man?" asked a voice from inside. "We just knocked over a beauty a hundred yards back." A quarter of an hour later I arrived at Ascot.

It was race week...little grooms and jockeys dodging among the long glossy legs of thoroughbreds; and the pedigree owners dipping their long cool necks into baskets of pate and gull's eggs...Alf and the tattered lines of the workless were far away in another country..." Plus Ã§a change, eh? 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful 5.0 out of 5 stars Walk along with a remarkable young man as he adventure in Spain in the 1930's Aug. 26 2014 By William VanZevern - Published on Amazon.com Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase It is a fact that there is a whole legion of walkers in the world and always has been. There perhaps are many like Laurie Lee and Paul Theroux who have walked to other lands but few of those have the gift of observation that sees things as they are and can write their opinion about it. Lee wrote in the last century- Theroux decades ago. In their reading it is clear they both truly liked about their adventures, the things they saw, and the people they met.

Lee in his description of those two was most informative and entertaining; a gift to the 19year old novice walker that he was. The physical strength and endurance dictated by his route as well as his cleverness in finding the means to fit in and survive with the peasants of the many parts of Spain in the late 1930’s as he traveled, is what amazed me. It is well worth the read; a fine well written adventure. As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning : a Memoir. (eBook, 2014) [WorldCat.org] Autobiographical Trilogy. Abstract: The second volume in Laurie Lee's acclaimed autobiographical trilogy, an unforgettable glimpse of Spain on the eve of its civil war On a bright Sunday morning in June 1934, Laurie Lee left the village home so lovingly portrayed in his bestselling memoir, Cider with Rosie. His plan was to walk the hundred miles from Slad to London, with a detour of an extra hundred miles to see the sea for the first time. He was nineteen years old and brought with him only what he could carry on his back: a tent, a change of clothes, his violin, a tin of biscuits, and some cheese.

He spent the first night in a. Reviews Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers. Be the first. Add a review and share your thoughts with other readers. Be the first. Tags schema:datePublished "2014" ; schema:description "The second volume in Laurie Lee's acclaimed autobiographical trilogy, an unforgettable glimpse of Spain on the eve of its civil war On a bright Sunday morning in June 1934, Laurie Lee left the village home so lovingly portrayed in his bestselling memoir, Cider with Rosie. His plan was to walk the hundred miles from Slad to London, with a detour of an extra hundred miles to see the sea for the first time. He was nineteen years old and brought with him only what he could carry on his back: a tent, a change of clothes, his violin, a tin of biscuits, and some cheese.

He spent the first night in a."@ en ; schema:description "Cover Page; Title Page; Contents; London Road; London; Into Spain; Zamora-Toro; Valladolid; Segovia-Madrid; Toledo; To the Sea; East to Málaga; Almuñécar; War; Epilogue; Preview: A Moment of War; About the Author; Copyright Page."@ en ; <i>As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning</i> by Laurie Lee | Experience Plus As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee by ExperiencePlus! - Tuesday, July 27, 2010 As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning by Laurie Lee (Atheneum, 1969) Moment of War: A Memoir of the Spanish Civil War by Laurie Lee (New Press, Reprint Edition, 1994) I delivered newspapers as a kid, a morning paper – The Oregonian. In winter it was pretty scary in the dark with the wind whipping off the Pacific Ocean, the tall shore pine blowing crazily and casting shadows from the street lights.

I used the lighthouse on the point to the north as a beacon and kept my eye on it, timing my stride to the count and rhythm of the light. Thirteen steps, light, one-two-three-four, light, then thirteen steps again. As I walked and delivered my papers, sometimes half asleep, that lighthouse hypnotized me. I would fall into a fantasy world, literally, dreaming about traveling the world by airplane, boat, train, bike, or on foot. Don’t ask me where this dream came from as I had never been farther from the Oregon coast than Los Angeles or Salt Lake City. Out of that dreamland, though, came a fascination with travel and with travel narratives. I suppose the need to read travel narratives of others has to do with trying to interpret the travel experience, trying to understand what it’s all about. Whatever the case, besides my own travel adventures, I’m fascinated by those of others to the point that I found Laurie Lee’s title, As I Walked out One Midsummer’s Morning, irresistible.

Irresistible because at age nineteen he was headed first to see the sea, which he had never seen, then to London, and ultimately to walk across Spain, diagonally, from the northwest as far as he could go, to Malaga and then beyond, another sixty miles to the village of Castillo. Laurie Lee set out in 1933, spent a year in London and then at the end of the next year found himself stranded on the far side of Iberia at the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War. He carried his fiddle with him, lived by the music he played on the street, and described his journey in a memoir some thirty years later. His volume on the Spanish Civil War, A Moment of War, describes his return to Spain in December of 1937 to join the International Brigade in its effort to help the duly elected Spanish Republican movement retain its power. He failed in his effort to join any serious resistance movement against Franco and his troops and barely escaped, just months later, with his life. Lee became an established poet, known throughout the United Kingdom, and later became well known for his prose works, including his autobiographical trilogy of which these two volumes are a part.

He writes with an economy of words typical of a poet that makes him easy to read. Indeed, his prose flows so smoothly and effortlessly you’d think he was composing an epic poem as this description of his mother, standing and watching as he walked away that midsummer morning attests (the phrasing is mine): Both these books are interesting. I found Midsummer Morning more interesting, though, than Moment of War, because the personal narrative lends itself better to the story of a lone twenty-year old walking across Spain. The war narrative, also quite personal, leaves the reader wondering about historic context. The genre of the personal narrative doesn’t easily accommodate documentary history, though, so the reader is often left wondering just where Lee’s personal experience fits in the grander picture of the Spanish Civil War. Now that I’ve read two-thirds of his autobiography, I’ll go back and read his first volume, Cider with Rosie, about growing up in the Cotswolds during World War I and in the 1920s. Who knows, maybe I’ll get hooked and we’ll start walking tours there! Note: Laurie Lee’s autobiographical triology was combined in one volume entitled Red Sky at Sunrise (Viking Press,1992) .

Check your library or online booksellers to buy Red Sky at Sunrise secondhand or any of the three volumes that comprise it. Laurie Lee – Personal background | Laurie Lee Official Centenary Website Laurie Lee Official Centenary Website Laurie Lee – Personal background Photo: © Paul Matthews He was brought up in the nearby village of Slad which is the centre of his most well-known work: Cider with Rosie. First published in 1959 this is the first of his autobiographical trilogy, which also includes: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning; and A Moment of War. Cider with Rosie is acknowledged as a seminal piece of English literature that captures the spirit of a childhood, family, community and rural life at a moment of great change in the early twentieth century. Photo: © Paul Matthews Laurie left home at 19 years old to begin a journey on foot that would take him initially to London and a year later to Spain. His journey through Spain on the verge of civil war is poignantly illustrated in the second part of his autobiographical trilogy: As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning.

The final book, A Moment of War, paints an evocative picture of his time as a volunteer in Spain during the war against Franco’s fascists; and his subsequent capture and repatriation to England. Photo: © Paul Matthews On his return to England he began to train and develop as an artist and a writer. At the outbreak of the Second World War he volunteered for military service in the UK, but was turned down on account of his epilepsy: a condition that plagued him throughout his life. Through his connections with the world of art and literature he met his wife Katherine Polge. They married in London in 1950 and had one daughter, Jessy, born in 1963. Despite his limited early formal education, Laurie demonstrated throughout his life that he was a master of the English language and a talented artist and musician. His early creative work focused on poetry and playwriting. Periods of paid employment as a young man included spells during the War as a scriptwriter with the Crown Film Unit and the Ministry of Information publications division. He was also appointed caption writer for the 1951 Festival of Britain for which he was appointed MBE.

Laurie died on the 13th May 1997 at home in his beloved Slad. Survived by his wife Kathy and daughter Jessy, he is buried in the local churchyard. Activities, events and publications to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Laurie’s birth in 2014.

Laurie Lee Centenary Events Laurie Lee: Quotes, Early Life and Works, Poetry, Other Works, Honors and Awards, Final Years, Works, and a List of Books by Author Laurie Lee Quotes more ï¿½ ï¿½ less "But our waking life, and our growing years, were for the most part spent in the kitchen, and until we married, or ran away, it was the common room we shared.""I expected to be shot at any moment and if they had done I would have understood, that they couldn't take risks with someone foolhardy or so unpredictable.""I have been sitting watching that ever since I came back, the continuous variations of light and shadow.""I wanted to communicate what I had seen, so that others could see it.""It was a world that I wanted to record because it was such a miracle visitation to me.""That last winter was a tragic story and I got no personal honour out of it but I was a witness to it.""We were living in the Slad Road when my father left us.

I was about three.""What she did was to open our eyes to details of country life such as teaching us names of wild flowers and getting us to draw and paint and learn poetry." Early Life and Works more ï¿½ ï¿½ less Having been born in Stroud, Lee's family moved to the village of Slad in 1917, the move with which Cider with Rosie opens. After fighting in the First World War with the Royal West Kent regiment, Lee's father Reg did not return to the family. Lee and his brothers grew up loving their mother's family, the Lights, and intensely disliking the Lee side. At twelve, Laurie went to the Central Boys School in Stroud. In his notebook for 1928, when he was fourteen he lists 'Concert and Dance Appointments', for at this time he was in demand to play his violin at dances. He left the Central School at fifteen to become an errand boy at a Chartered Accountants in Stroud. In 1931 he first found the Whiteway Colony, two miles from Slad, a colony founded by Tolstoy Anarchists.

It gave him his first smattering of politicization and was where he met the composer Benjamin Frankel and the 'Cleo' who appears in As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning. In 1933 he met Sophia Rogers, an "exotically pretty girl with dark curly hair" who had moved to Slad from Buenos Aires, an influence on Lee who said later in life that he only went to Spain because "a girl in Slad from Buenos Aires taught me a few words of Spanish." At twenty he worked as an office clerk and a builder's labourer, and lived in London for a year before leaving for Spain in the summer of 1935. Walking more often than not, he eked out a living by playing his violin. His first encounter with Spain is the subject of As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning (1969). After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in July 1936 Lee was picked up by a British destroyer from Gibraltar, collecting marooned British subjects on the southern Spanish coast.

He started to study for an art degree (during these years he met a woman who helped him financially) but returned to Spain in 1937 as an International Brigade volunteer. His service in the Brigade was cut short by his epilepsy. These experiences were recounted in A Moment of War (1991), an austere memoir of his time as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. According to many biographical sources, Lee fought in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) in the Republican army against Franco's Nationalists. After his death there were claims that Lee's involvement in the war was a fantasy; they were dismissed as "ludicrous" by his widow. Before devoting himself entirely to writing in 1951, Lee worked as a journalist and as a scriptwriter. During World War II he made documentary films for the General Post Office film unit (1939-40) and the Crown Film Unit (1941-43). From 1944 to 1946 he worked as the Publications Editor for the Ministry of Information.

In 1950 Lee married Catherine Francesca Polge, whose father was Provenï¿½al and whose mother was one of the Garman sisters; they had one daughter, Jessie. From 1950 to 1951 he was caption-writer-in-chief for the Festival of Britain, for which service he was awarded the decoration of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1952. Cider with Rosie continues to be one of the UK's most popular books, and is sometimes used as a set English Literature text for schoolchildren. It captured images of village life from a bygone era of innocence and simplicity. With the proceeds Lee was able to buy a cottage in Slad, the village of his childhood. Poetry more ï¿½ ï¿½ less Lee's first love was always poetry, though he was only moderately successful as a poet. Lee's first poem appeared in The Sunday Referee in 1934. Another poem was published in Cyril Connolly's Horizon in 1940 and his first volume of poems, The Sun My Monument, was launched in 1944.

This was followed by The Bloom of Candles (1947) and My Many Coated Man (1955). Several poems written in the early 1940s reflect the atmosphere of the war, but also capture the beauty of the English countryside. Other Works more ï¿½ ï¿½ less Other works include A Rose for Winter, about a trip he made to Andalusia fifteen years after the Civil War; Two Women (1983), a story of Lee's courtship and marriage with Kathy, daughter of Helen Garman; The Firstborn (1964), about the birth and childhood of their daughter Jessye; I Can't Stay Long (1975), a collection of occasional writing; and The Edge of Day (1960), an autobiography. Lee also wrote travel books, essays, a radio play, and short stories. Honors and Awards more ï¿½ ï¿½ less Lee received several awards, including the Atlantic Award (1944), the Society of Authors travelling award (1951), the William Foyle Poetry Prize (1956), and the W.H. Smith and Son Award (1960).

In As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning, Lee writes of his stay in a Spanish fishing village which he calls "Castillo." The real town is Almuï¿½ï¿½car. In 1988 the citizens of Almuï¿½ï¿½car erected a statue in Lee's honor. In 1993, A Moment of War was chosen as a Notable Book of the Year by the editors of The New York Times Book Review. Lee provided a great deal of valuable support to the Brotherhood of Ruralists in their attempts to establish themselves in the 1970s, and he continued to do so until his death; his essay Understanding the Ruralists opened the Brotherhood's major 1993 retrospective book. Indeed, it was Lee who is said to have given them the name "Ruralists." In 2003 the British Library acquired Lee's original manuscripts, letters and diaries. The collection includes two unknown plays and drafts of Cider with Rosie, which reveal that early titles for the book were Cider with Poppy, Cider with Daisy and The Abandoned Shade.

An Obstinate Exile (1951) A Rose for Winter: Travels in Andalusia (1955) Man Must Move: The Story of Transport (with David Lambert) (1960); published in the U.S. as The Wonderful World of Transportation, (1960) — for children The Firstborn (1964) I Can't Stay Long (1975) Innocence in the Mirror (1978) Two Women (1983)

Question: Which was the first part of the autobiographical trilogy, completed by 'As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning' and 'A Moment Of War'?
Answer: 'CIDER WITH ROSIE'